Win for Kurds as Iraqi MPs finally elect president

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Jalal Talabani ... a Shiite and a Sunni were named as the former Kurdish rebel's deputies.Photo: Reuters

Iraq's parliament has chosen the former Kurdish rebel fighter
Jalal Talabani as the first freely elected president in its
history, paving the way for the creation of a new government next
week.

The choice yesterday of Mr Talabani, 72, by the 275-seat
assembly is a political victory for the Kurdish minority in
Iraq.

A Shiite Islamist, Adel Abdel Mahdi, and a Sunni, Ghazi Yawar,
president in the coalition government, were named as his two
deputies after weeks of political wrangling following the landmark
January 30 elections.

Iraqi MPs predicted that a government should be in place by next
week, with the Shiite politician Ibrahim al-Jafaari expected to be
named prime minister today by the newly appointed three-man
presidency council.

Saddam Hussein and 11 of his top aides were to watch the
parliamentary proceedings from their jail cells in a US base in
Baghdad, the Human Rights Minister, Bakhtiar Amin, said.

"There will be a place in jail for Saddam and the 11 to watch
the TV to understand their time is finished, there is a new Iraq
and that they are no longer ruling the country; so they can
understand that in the new Iraq, people are elected and they are
not coming to power by a coup d'etat," Mr Amin said.

MPs walked to the front of their assembly inside Baghdad's
fortified green zone to cast their votes before the ballots for
president were counted publicly. The vote was a formality after the
powerful Shiite and Kurdish blocs in parliament formalised the
line-up with Sunni parties on Tuesday after weeks of wrangling.

"We are happy that the first elected president of Iraq is coming
from a community that has been persecuted for years," a Shiite MP,
Hussein Shahrastani, said.

A Kurdish MP and former interim foreign minister, Hoshyar
Zebari, said his Kurdistan Alliance and the Shiite United Iraqi
Alliance, which dominated the elections, had gone out of their way
to reach out to the embittered Sunnis, who had largely boycotted
the election.

"Our common approach has been to include them. Irrespective of
their passive attitude, they have been given significant
positions," Mr Zebari said.

Hajem al-Hassani, a Sunni, was elected parliamentary Speaker on
Sunday, and the religious minority that held power in Saddam's
regime and all previous Iraqi governments is also to get four to
six cabinet posts.

Mr Hassani was drafted as a last-minute choice amid fierce
disagreement among Shiites and Sunnis over who should take the
post.

The Bush Administration announced on Tuesday that the US
ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, is to become the new
US envoy to Iraq. Three Romanian journalists held hostage in
Iraq since last week have been freed, two private Romanian
television stations quoted official sources as saying on
Tuesday.